A predominantly cashless society

Most every merchant here accepts debit cards as payment. To pay by debit card is to "pinnen" (note: very few grocery stores in NL accept credit cards, which can be a real issue if you're a tourist). The 2 signs below are common sights in The Netherlands.

Loosely translates to "We accept debit cards"

Loosely translates to "only debit cards accepted here"

Pinnen Ja Graag is often seen at farmer's markets where the vendors have this device that is also used by restaurants. It is portable and allows the customer to either hold their debit card up to the machine or insert the card into the machine and enter the PIN for completion of the transaction,similar to the one shown below.

portable debit card reader

Hier Alleen Pinnen is usually seen in brick and mortar stores like grocery stores.

(It just dawned on me as I am writing this that you NEVER see a "Cash Only" sign)

The upshot of all this is that merchants very rarely seem to have actual cash in the store. This is good as it keeps everyone safe... there's nothing to steal, right? However, there is a downside to this. It's almost impossible to get change. I have heard cashiers ask on more than 1 occasion if the customer had a smaller bill. When I've seen this it's usually because the customer has a €20 or €50 and they're buying a small amount of stuff. 

I experienced this the other day and it surprised me. I was at Zeeman's (think "Dollar Tree", but more along the lines of cheap clothing and cleaning products, and most things cost more than €1) purchasing €0.50 worth of dishwashing detergent and all I had were €10's and €20's. I really wanted to break one of the bills because I had forgotten to keep a €1 coin and €0.50 coin with me as I suggest here. I was really looking forward to this opportunity to at least get a €0.50 coin. HOWEVER... when I handed the cashier my €10 she asked me if I had anything smaller. (On a side note, she said it in Dutch and I COMPLETELY understood what she said!!! WOO HOO!!) My response was "Pinnen?" and I heard the tone in response as "Of course you can use a debit card, moron!"

So... heed my advice from my earlier post and hold onto those €0.50 and €1 coins at all costs... you may never see one again!

It's different and yet the same

One thing about living here is that many of the plants here (and wildlife) are the same as what we experienced in Northern Virginia. Forsythia, rhododendron, hydrangea... they all exist here just as they did back home.

Granted, I could've stayed within the US and seen vastly different flora and fauna, but it's still a little disheartening that I moved almost 4 thousand miles away and end up seeing the same things.

You CAN sit here, but I can ignore you...

As I mentioned in this post, it's not uncommon for passengers on trains and trams to place themselves and their possessions in such a way that makes it impossible to sit in the seat beside them. All the trams have 2 seats on at least 1 side of the aisle and all the trains have 2 seats on each side of the aisle. But, when you walk onto 1 of these modes of transportation don't be surprised if you see either someone sitting on the outside seat, or sitting on the inside seat with their bags taking up the outside seat.

Heck, hubs and I even saw 1 guy take up FOUR seats on the train over the weekend. There are spots on the train where 1 row of seats is turned backwards such that it faces the other 2 seats and there's a little table attached to the wall. A nice way for 3 or 4 people to ride together and be able to talk. Well... this guy was sitting in 1 of those 4, on the outside seat and had his stuff sitting on the other outside seat. How nice.

Any who... hubs and I were on the tram earlier that same day and we sat behind a woman who was sitting in the outside seat. A few stops later 2 women with a boy get on. The women were speaking Spanish to each other, and 1 seemed to indicate to the other to ask the woman in front of us if she could sit in the inside seat. The woman who was already seated allowed the new passenger to sit on the inside seat, and then promptly turned sideways such that her feet were in the aisle and her back was to the woman who just sat down. A stop or 2 after that another woman gets on with a dog. The woman sitting sideways made quite a show of petting and talking to the dog. So... she could be nice to dogs, but not to people. I was laughing. Finally, the woman sitting sideways gets up so the dog woman could take her spot, and then sideways woman goes up to the front of the tram to talk to the driver (BTW - there is a sign explicitly stating that talking to the driver is not permitted during the ride)

I keep trying to find a benign reason for the woman's behavior, but I'm having a hard time coming up with one.

Vengeance shall be mine!

To those who are friends with on Facebook or have read my other blog entries about fietsers (here and here) you already know I'm not overly fond of their attitude towards the rest of the world, especially pedestrians. Everything is a viable surface for them to bike on, which gets quite annoying.

Well... the other day I was walking back from one of the grocery stores... on the sidewalk. Thought I'd make that clear, just in case anyone was wondering. Coming towards me is a fietser. Now, what made this particular more irritating than most was that she was RIGHT BESIDE THE BIKE LANE AND.... wait for it... SHE WAS GOING IN THE SAME DIRECTION AS THE BIKE LANE!!! AACCKK!!! 💩😒😠😦🚳

Well.. I wasn't about to deviate my path, after all, I WAS on the sidewalk. As we near each other we reach a place where someone had parked their moped. The fiester THOUGHT she could stay seated on her bike and wedge herself between me and the moped, but nope! She had to dismount.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!  😈😈😈😈😈

The pigeon show

Across the street from our apartment is "Palace Promenade". It's a mini-mall with a few restaurants, a bowling alley, an indoor glow-in-the-dark miniature golf, some clothing, jewelry and shoe stores, a souvenir shop or 2, a toy store, a book/newsstand/"post office" (you can only pick up packages or buy stamps, you can't drop off mail)/office supply store and a couple general purpose stores where one can procure bicycle repair items (of course!), cleaning supplies and first aid. There is also a casino as part of the entire building. By the way, there are TWO casinos within a stone's throw of our apartment. Literally, a stone's throw. I guess the Dutch like to gamble.

As is the case here in NL, Palace Promenade is not very big by American standards. I believe all the retail shops inside can fit into 1 mall anchor store in the US. Also, as is the case here in NL, there are residences above the mall. But, it is very convenient to our apartment and I have frequented Kruidvat (pronounced crowd-vat) for shampoo, vitamins and such (think CVS/Walgreens/Rite-Aid without the pharmacist which is only located in the apotheek).

While most of the stores are only accessible from within the mall a few of the stores also have entrances outside the mall. One of those stores is a bakery which is visible from our apartment. The fun begins on bread delivery day. A red truck pulls up in front of the bakery, the driver opens the back door and lowers the ramp. As he wheels the racks of bread into the bakery he leaves the back door of the truck open to expedite the process. During the moving of the bread he must leave behind bits and pieces because that is when the pigeons arrive. Now, I'm trying to figure out HOW he leaves bits and pieces behind if all the bread is wrapped in plastic. But, since this is NL/EU, there's probably an utter abhorrence of "unnecessary" plastic and the bread is probably not wrapped. I've been in the bakery a few times and most of the bread is not wrapped there, so it probably isn't delivered wrapped.

As the driver completes the delivery he and the pigeons do their dance. When the driver is not physically on the ramp the pigeons slowly make their way up it, pecking at the bits and pieces. They do this even if the driver is still in the truck. If the driver is on the ramp the pigeons fly just far enough away to be out of the reach of his feet. The second the ramp is clear, they are back at it. And so this goes as the driver enters and exits the truck. Hubs and I watch the birds and make bets as to how far up the ramp the pigeons will get. Some are bold enough to actually get INTO the truck completely and for a few minutes at a time. BLEH!

(We've also seen the birds enter the store itself as the establishment seems to like to keep their door open regardless of the weather. And, no, I haven't gone back into the store after observing how much access to the bread the pigeons have.)

I guess in their own way the pigeons are doing the bread company a service. By eating the bits and pieces no one has to clean the truck... right? 😉

Bread time!

Weird Dutch math

There is a grocery store in NL named Hoogvliet (pronounced hoge-vleet) that I frequent because it's noticeably bigger than the Albert Heijn (pronounced albert hine) near our apartment and not as far a walk as the Jumbo (pronounced yumbo) which is even bigger.

Albert Heijn has a member card like many grocery stores do in the states. It's free to get and using it gives you discounts on specific items in the store. Hoogvliet and Jumbo offer their sales prices to anyone, no card needed. Hoogvliet DOES have a card but I haven't figured out what it's actually for. I got it because the cashier once asked me if I had one. Then I used it and noticed I was charged about 10% of my total the next time I was there. I tried to ask customer service what the card was for and the woman who was working there at the time didn't speak English fluently enough for me to quite understand how it worked. So, I don't use it any more... shocking.

Any way, there have been a couple of incidents at Hooglviet that have me scratching my head.

1) Just last weekend hubs and I were there together buying items for Sunday breakfast. We had picked out 2 croissants. When we get to the register the cashier tells us that 2 croissants cost €1.10 but if we get 4 croissants it will only cost €1. Huh? I didn't really want 4 because I didn't think we'd eat the other 2. The bakery section uses bags with perforations in them which lets air into the bag and turns whatever baked item you purchased into a rock after a couple of days. (Note: put them in something truly airtight and they will be good for a few more days) But, hubs went back and got 2 more croissants. The cashier was proud of herself "It cost you ten cents less and you get twice as many croissants". Um... k. You can't just charge me for 4 even though I only purchased 2? The woman in line behind us was so intrigued by this that she actually left the line to go get 4 croissants.

2) The store has eggs sitting "loose" for lack of a better word. They are in flats of about 36, stacked 1 on top of the other, with empty cartons that hold 6 or 10 eggs sitting beneath. (As a general rule, a dozen eggs just isn't a thing here). 6 eggs cost  €1.71 and 10 eggs cost €2.46. So, if you want 12 eggs it will cost €1 more than buying 10 eggs.

Loose eggs at Hoogvliet. "Doos" = box. "Stuks" = pieces

Now, the 6 egg cartons are actually dozen cartons perforated in the middle, and the first time I bought eggs there I picked up 1 carton like that. When I got to the register I was charged €3.42 because they literally scan the barcode on each 6 count carton (even though the cartons are attached to each other). I was NOT happy.

Often the 10 count boxes are gone, and I certainly don't want to be charged an extra euro any more just for 2 more eggs. So, 1 time I dared to ask an employee if they had any more 10 count boxes. You'd have thought I asked him to donate a kidney. He walks off without saying much to me, I followed, just in case that's what I was supposed to do. He walks to the complete opposite side of the store from where the loose eggs are and hands me a 10-count box already filled with eggs and then storms off. I had visions of Squidward from Spongebob Squarepants saying "He made me provide excellent service!"